PART III: The Animation
Step 18: Preparing the Spaceship

Before we can launch ourselves into space we need a ship. Luckily for you, I have already created one (you're welcome), but it is unfinished. We will take time in this step to give our ship some color, give it a name and a logo, and prepare it for flight.

  1. If you still have your Space file open go ahead and close it now - we will not need it again until Step 20
  2. Open Photoshop and surf to the techclass\Mr. OKilen\Template\GDI\Photoshop Tutorial folder and open the file named Ship.psd...

You may notice at this point that your ship lacks color in several places. Your first task will be to select a color and fill in the four areas of your ship that need color...

  1. Decide what color you want to use to fill in your ship - I'm going to fill the four areas of my ship with red

You have probably noticed by now that I have already provided you with two layers in your layer stack...

The Color layer contains a simple, solid outline of your ship that you will insert your color on. The Ship layer contains a feathered outline of your ship, the white portions, the flame at the back, and is locked (don't mess with it). By using two different layers to add in our color, we can be certain that we don't mess up the body of the ship itself and that all of our color sits on one layer.

  1. Set the Foreground Color to the color you chose in direction 3
  2. Make sure the visibility of both layers is turned on
  3. Make sure the Color layer is the active layer
  4. Select the Paint Bucket Tool
  5. Click each of the four areas to add color to them, you should end up with a ship that is similar to the image below...
If you are happy with the color you added you may skip ahead to direction 10. I'm going to give you an opportunity to customize your ship a little by choosing a second color if you want. You are free to set the fins to one color and the other two areas to a different color. This allows for the creation of some interesting color combinations...

Avoid the temptation to use more than two colors as adding in a bunch of different colors tends to make these cartoon ships look ridiculous. Also, DO NOT change the white areas of the ship. We will need the body to remain white so we can easily read the ship name we will be adding in just a second.

  1. If you wish, choose a second color and click on each fin

Now let's get our beautifully colored ship onto one layer.

  1. Select both layers then right-click on one of them and click Merge Layers - notice that the new layer is named Ship (do you remember why?)

Now let's give our ship a name. The coolest ship names begin with U.S.S. (which, by the way, stands for United States Ship), so this is how we are going to start our ship name. We need to use the Type Tool to add in our ship name.

  1. Click the Horizontal Type Tool...

    Notice the cursor changes to an I-bar (this indicates that you can type in text)...
  2. Click inside your spaceship and drag to create a box...
  3. When you release the mouse you should see a text box, as in the graphic below...

    Notice that Photoshop creates a layer in the Layers panel called Layer 1 (if the layer is named something else don't worry about it - it will change in a minute) and that a T shows in the layer icon to let you know that the layer contains text...
  4. Adjust the Options bar so that it matches the settings below...

    You are free to use a different font if you like, but be sure that it is large enough to be easily seen on your spaceship and is not some strange font that is impossible to read
  5. Type U.S.S. followed by your last name in all caps...
    Just put your last name - I do not want to see     U.S.S. RILEYISGREAT or U.S.S. TRAVIS GOT SWAG or anything else like that - use only your last name or I will take off points - LOTS OF POINTS
  6. Your name is likely not in the perfect spot (notice how mine goes over the red portion of the ship in the image above), so let's move it by clicking the Move Tool (remember where that is?)
  7. Click on your name and drag it into place - it should be in about the same position as the name in the image below (if you just have to move it a small amount you can use the arrow keys on the keyboard)...

    BTW, if you have a long last name, feel free to put the     U.S.S. and your name on two different lines...

Notice that the layer that contains your text is now named whatever you typed on the layer...

This is very helpful as it will allow us to quickly tell the difference between different text layers.

Now comes the part where you get to be really creative. In the space above your name, you need to add in a graphic of your choice to personalize your spaceship.
  1. Use the Internet to locate an image you want to include on your ship (remember that it needs to be an image that does not have a great deal of tiny details as these will be lost when you resize the image and place it on your ship) - here is the image I will be using...

    Remember that this is a school project and the image you choose MUST be appropriate for use in school
  2. Once you locate your personal image on the Internet, save it to your Photoshop folder
  3. Open your personal image in Photoshop
  4. We need to see both your spaceship and your personal image at the same time, so we need to take your personal image off of Maximize, so locate the Document Title of your personal image and right-click on it and then click Move to New Window...

    Photoshop should place your personal image in its own window and put it in the upper left corner - if you need to reposition your personal image so you can see both images at the same time, you can click on the title bar and drag the image where you need it to be
  5. Using the Move Tool, click on your personal image and drag it onto your spaceship...

    Notice that Photoshop creates a new layer and automatically places your image on it...

    (if this does not work for you, you may need to click your personal image and press Ctrl+A [this is the keyboard shortcut to select everything] to select it then press Ctrl+C to copy it and then click your spaceship and press Ctrl+V to paste your image)
  6. Close the original personal image file...

    If Photoshop asks if you want to save it, click No
  7. Rename the new layer containing your personal image to Image...
  8. If there are any parts of your personal image that you do not want included in your finished project, or if you want to alter the image in any way, use whatever method is appropriate (Magic Wand Tool, Eraser Tool, Levels Editor, Brush Tool, Crop Tool, or whatever works) to remove or change anything you don't want - in my image for example, I removed the green color around my image (otherwise I would have had an odd looking square instead of a really cool circle)...

    By the way, removing the color was easy: I simply clicked on the color with the Magic Wand Tool to select the color and then pressed the Delete key
  9. Resize your personal image so that it is the proper size for your spaceship - remember that to resize things we can use Edit > Transform > Scale, or simply press Ctrl+T on the keyboard
  10. Use the Move Tool to place your personal image in the correct position on your spaceship...
  11. Save your spaceship file in your Photoshop folder as Spaceship.psd

Our ship is now ready to go, so let's work on getting our head in the image.

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